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THE MOVIE |
THE DVD |
REVIEWER |
REVIEW DATE |
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WesCraven |
21st September, 2004 |
Review Quote
"I would have liked a little more blood; though I think a great deal of non-shown violence
does in fact work well in this movie. This film can be for just about anyone,
it's not your typical slasher or anything, but it's creepy, smart, and in the
end pretty damn entertaining."
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The Plot
Novelist Mort Rainey is being accused by a mysterious man of
stealing one of his stories, and he won't go away until this problem is solved.
The Movie
I decided to skip this one when it was in theatres, as Stephan
King films are either hit or miss (in my opinion anyway). However, now that I've
seen "Secret Window", I wish I could go back and change my mind. To my
surprise this film is rather pretty solid. The acting is top notch; though it
should be expected with both Johnny Depp, and John Turturro on board. Depp is
especially excellent as the depressed writer who can't write, who's very afraid
of his seemingly violent visitor. Turturro though also hands is a wonderful
performance.
The story, originally by Stephen King (and entitled "Secret Window, Secret
Garden"), is clever, but too smart for its own good. Not to mention that the
adaptation (sometimes the downfall of Kings films) to screenplay by director
David Koepp is very well done, and makes for a highly entertaining film. The
ending was pretty solid, those some may see it coming far too early. However, if
you don't it's a possible humdinger. Though, even if you do figure it out;
isn't figuring stuff out fun? (I thought it was).
Another goodie with "Secret Window" is the score dished out by Phillip Glass.
It's moody, creepy, and totally enhances the movie watching experience. At
times the score is subtle, and at others tears at your throat. All in all, it's
one of the better scores I've heard in a while.
All in all the movie was solid, much better than I expected. I would have
liked a little more blood; though I think a great deal of "non-shown" violence
does in fact work well in this movie. This film can be for just about anyone,
it's not your typical slasher or anything, but it's creepy, smart, and in the
end pretty damn entertaining.
The DVD
The DVD is pretty good. The transfer are great. The extras are also
pretty great. We get a pretty interesting and entertaining audio commentary
with director David Koepp, which I found to be, well, both interesting and
entertaining. We get four deleted scenes, two of which have optional audio
commentary with David Koepp. These were cool and fun to see. Also included is
three
featurettes about the making of the movie, together totaling over an hour. I
found this feature to be vastly interesting and exceptionally entertaining. We
also get a theatrical trailer, as well as 8 trailers for other films/DVDS. All
in the DVD is pretty good, and is worth seeing.
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Director
David Koepp
Cast
Johnny Depp
John Turturro
Maria Bello
Timothy Hutton
Charles S. Dutton
Screenplay
David Koepp
Tagline
"Some windows should never be opened."
Country
USA
Classification
PG-13
Year
2004
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Format
NTSC
Region Coding
1
Aspect Ratio
2.40:1
16x9 Enhanced
Yes
Running Time
96 minutes
Year Released
2004
Packaging
Keep Case
Extra Features
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes
3 Featurettes
Animated Storyboards
9 Movie Trailers
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If you find any errors in this review, know of any other versions of this DVD available or no longer available, send us an e-mail so we can get the word out to the horror community.
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